Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda on Sunday said that the Election Commission's next panel of commissioners would decide whether the much-talked-about electronic voting machine would be used in the next general elections.
The last military-backed interim regime, soon after taking office, reconstituted the Election Commission in February 2007 with Shamsul Huda as its head for a five-year tenure.
The CEC, however, said the EC would go ahead with its EVM project as they would be used in the upcoming local government polls.
Over three lakh EVMs, costing about Tk 700 crore, will be needed if they are used in the general elections, said EC officials.
Admitting that the EVM would not guarantee the prevention of electoral manipulation, Huda said that the only objective of introducing it was to reduce the various inconveniences faced by election officials as well as diminish voting time.
He was exchanging views with media personalities in the auditorium of the National Executive Council as part of the EC's programme of holding a series of dialogues with stakeholders.
Professor SM Lutful Kabir, director of the Institute of Information and Communication Technology of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, demonstrated how the EVM works.
The EC vested the responsibility of manufacturing the EVMs jointly on the BUET and Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory for some its pilot projects.
Senior journalist ABM Musa, Manabjamin's editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Boishakhi TV's editor-in-chief Manjurul Islam Bulbul, Bdnews24.com's editor Toufique Imrose Khalidi, Channel i's director (news) Shykh Siraj, Bhorer Kagaj's editor Shyamal Dutt and ABC Radio's head of news Sanaullah Lablu participated in the dialogue, along with others.
When Huda was asked why the EC was adamant to introduce the EVMs in the next general polls in spite of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's objection, he replied, 'We never said that we would use the EVMs in the next general elections.'
'But for the time being we will use the EVMs in the local government polls and by-polls to gradually get the electorate used to the new technology,' he said.
'The EVM should be used in the general polls only when all the stakeholders gain confidence in this technology,' he added.
Replying to a question as to why the EC was going ahead with its project, which involves crores of takas, if EVMs will not be used in the parliamentary polls, Huda said, 'Manufacturing EVMs will not be misuse of money as the machines will be used for the local government polls.'
'In fact,' he said, 'we have undertaken the project at the request of the election officials who face massive hassle in conducting the entire process of polling.'
'The EVM will be used in the general polls only if all the political parties reach a consensus on it,' he added.
He, however, said that the EC would launch a widespread campaign to popularize the EVMs.
When his attention was drawn to a proposal of the EC that it wants to have control over four ministries, including the home affairs ministry, during elections, Huda said, 'We do not want to have control over the ministries. We rather proposed that the government create a provision so that the ministries concerned do have prior consultations with the commission before taking any decision during the time of election.'
'We have seen that the then chief adviser, Latifur Rahman, made a massive reshuffle in the administration on the basis of only his assumption before the 2001 parliament polls,' he said.
Replying to the queries of the senior journalists, Professor Lutful Kabir said, 'Introduction of the EVM will not be able to curb the manipulation that now mars the electoral process.'
When asked whether a voter would be able to cast more than one vote, Lutful Kabir replied in the positive.
'If the polling officer wants, one can vote more than once. But the polling agents will be there to stop it,' he said.
Most of the journalists asked the EC not to be in a hurry to introduce the EVMs.
Lutful Kabir told New Age that it would cost over Tk 22,000 to manufacture a single EVM.
The EC later sat for the scheduled dialogue with the Jatiya Ganatantrik Party of Shafiul Alam Pradhan in the EC secretariat.
Source : New Age
